Brian Topp endorses Guy Caron

Longtime NDP insider and one-time party leadership contender Brian Topp is endorsing Quebec member of Parliament Guy Caron for leadership.

Topp said in a statement sent out by Caron’s campaign Tuesday morning that he’s supporting Caron’s bid because of his “deep and passionate understanding of the issues he will address as leader,” including economic and social inequality.

“I support Guy Caron for leader because he understands that the NDP’s best and arguably only road to government lies in a winning coalition of like-minded progressives in Quebec and across Canada,” he said.

In a fundraising email sent out by the campaign, Topp continues on that theme:

“Our friend Jack Layton led us to the promised land but, tragically, never got to see it. Guy Caron can take up this patient work of party-building, coalition-building and country-building, and get the job done.”

Topp worked as chief of staff for Alberta NDP Premier Rachel Notley for about a year and a half after their electoral success in May 2015.

Topp was the federal party’s campaign chairman in the 2006 and 2008 elections, and Jack Layton’s chief strategist in the 2011 election, which saw the NDP’s electoral breakthrough in Quebec.

The political strategist also ran the B.C. NDP’s 2013 campaign – which lost – and also unsuccessfully ran for federal leadership in 2012, only to come second to Tom Mulcair.

Caron’s campaign has picked up a number of big endorsements recently, including former party leader Alexa McDonough, and United Steel Workers union brass – including their national director Ken Neumann. That union represents more than 225,000 workers across Canada.

Meanwhile, rival contender Jagmeet Singh netted an endorsement from top brass at the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has more than 250,000 members in Canada. Singh currently leads in caucus endorsements – with seven federal MPs, half of Ontario’s caucus and about a quarter of B.C.’s.